Remote Start the Car By Voice with Siri?

Just a week ago, the hot advancement in remote start was to achieve it by tapping on your smartphone. The next leap forward may be to start your car by simply asking.

A software developer has hacked his iPhone 4S using Siri voice command to remote start his car by voice. He does this in conjunction with a Viper SmartStart module.

Brandon Fiquett’s discovery has gotten a lot of press attention this week. In his YouTube video below, he says “Start my car” and his Acura TL obeys. He can also use Siri to arm and disarm the vehicle, lock and unlock doors and also pop the trunk.

Directed Electronics, maker of the Viper SmartStart thinks talking to the car is a great idea, but not hacking into phones. “We don’t support any jailbroken apps on the iPhone, but if Apple ever decides to allow third-party app integration with Siri, you can be sure that Viper SmartStart customers will be talking to their cars on a daily basis,” said Jim Jardin, VP marketing.

Fiquett was able to achieve his feat “by using Siri Proxy created by another hacker @plamoni, and then running a custom PHP script on his home computer along with some custom plugins to communicate with Siri,” said GizMag.

Fiquet, who is also a minister and scuba diving instructor, says he offers the technology as a “proof of concept.”

Source: GizMag and Fiquette.com
Photos via Fiquette.com

Blackmore BAC Amps Available

Los Angeles, CA (November 29, 2011) – Blackmore Mobile Electronics has announced the availability of its newly-redesigned and re-engineered BAC Series Amplifiers. With several amplifiers to choose from to best fit your vehicle and musical tastes, Blackmore gives car audio fans various options for delivering powerful sounds. Headlining the new series is the BAC-DM70, Blackmore’s premiere digital mono block amplifier.

The BAC-DM70, a MOSFET mono block amplifier that produces a maximum power of 3200 watts, is designed to provide extreme power to drive Blackmore subwoofers. Like all BAC Series amplifiers, the BAC-DM70 utilizes an effective method of increasing power from a vehicle’s electrical system. This technology gives Blackmore amplifiers the ability to operate impedances as low as 1 ohm.

Other advanced features for the BAC-DM70 include RMS power of 1500 x 1, variable low-pass crossover, variable bass boost control, chrome-plated RCA inputs, variable gain control and remote subwoofer level controls.

“Our BAC Series Amplifiers have been dramatically improved inside and out,” said Blackmore representative, Bo Parvizi. “The technological enhancements we have made coupled with the new external looks of the amplifier, like the new Blackmore logo, have been well-received by our dealers and car audio fans. We are looking forward to a very promising year in 2012!”

Blackmore’s suggested retail value for the BAC Series Amplifiers ranges from $120 to $350. The BAC-DM70 suggested retail value $350. For more information on the entire BAC amplifier series, call toll-free 866.572.6766 or email boparvizi@blackmoremobile.com

Blaupunkt Returns to the U.S.

Corrected! After a 2-year hiatus, Blaupunkt will return to the U.S. as a full line specialist brand.

American Music and Sound, based in South Haven, Miss. is the appointed distributor for Blaupunkt in the U.S., said national sales manager Dave Prall who worked at Blaupunkt for 16 years before the company was sold in early 2009.

American’s strategy is to turn Blaupunkt into the only “protected” car radio line in the U.S., said Prall.  “Currently we’re finding success with [former] Blaupunkt dealers and some Eclipse dealers because Eclipse filled that role for years.” {See note below}

Blaupunkt began a soft launch in mid-November of products that are currently offered globally. They include CD/radios from $99 to $249, in-dash navigation, amps and speakers, powered subwoofers, add-on Bluetooth kits and headphones.

The plan is to eventually distinguish the line by pushing the envelope on technology, Prall said.

The company will display the products in an off-site hotel suite during the CES show in January.

Included is a top of the line CD radio, the Toronto 410 BT with built in Bluetooth A2DP for audio streaming and hands free calling plus iPhone/iPod control via USB at $249.

The top of the line AV/navigation/radio is the New York 800 with a 6.2 inch touch screen, Parrot Blueooth, front and rear USB and iPhone/iPod control   It has DivX playback and input for a rear view camera at $1199.

Prall has set up a rep network that is about 80 percent complete.  He may be contacted at dave.prall@americanmusicandsound.com.

Update.   Dual Electronics pointed out that it’s new Axxera line of car stereo head units aimed at the specialist maintains protected distribution.

Source: CEoutlook

Black Friday Car Audio Sales Upbeat

Many car stereo retailers reported single digit gains over Black Friday or the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

The retailers who promoted heavily seemed to show the biggest gains. As a result some of the larger specialists and those affiliated with buying groups such as MESA were clear winners early in the holiday season.

BrandsMart U.S.A., Hollywood, FL was up 9 percent for Black Friday week compared to last year.  Mickey Shorr (16-stores), Pontiac, MI was up by single digits on Black Friday. Car Toys (50 stores)m  Seattle, WA saw gains in the high single digits over the weekend.  Custom Sounds, Austin, TX (16 stores) was up 37 percent for the weekend and Freeman’s Stereo Video, Charlotte, NC was up 5 percent.  Both the latter retailers are MESA (Mobile Electronics Specialists of America) members who attributed their gains to MESA’s sale-in-a-box, online key word promotions and email blasts.

MESA is holding a $6K prize giveaway to help drive traffic to its retailers’ Facebook sites.

“We had people lined up at the doors that opened up at 8 am,” said Jeff Pitts of Mickey Shorr.  It wasn’t an Apple-style crush, but there were 7 or 8 people waiting as doors opened at the stores.  The chain ran specials including $99 remote starters (installed) and a $39.95 Kenwood CD player plus a $399 Kenwood in-dash navigation deck. “It’s all about promotions,” said Pitts.

Car Toys noted its web traffic was up substantially as were online sales.

BrandsMart’s Francisco Lozano said “Bright spots were in opening price points of single CD indash car stereos and indash video.”

Custom Sounds attributed much of its 37 percent gains to MESA benefits. “Having the MESA Black Friday marketing materials pre-made for us allowed us to concentrate our time and effort on in-store merchandising and communication to our staff,” said Custom Sounds President Brain Dorsey.  MESA’s e-blast templates also helped drive traffic and the store sent out emails to customers on Wednesday afternoon as well as Friday morning. “Our reponse was outstanding,” he said.

The store also “brought deep” on promotional items like the Kenwood PW1210 package, Directed remote starters, Alpine coaxials, JL Audio JX amps, and Rockford Fosgate R1 loaded boxes so it was able to aggressively discount.   But as a specialist, the chain was able to step up customers so that doorbusters only accounted for 1.4 percent of sales, Dorsey said.  Also strong were accessories like radar detectors, window tint, Hushmat sound dampening, Sirius/XM satellite raio and back up cameras.

No all stores reported gains.  We spoke with a Midwest retailer who said sales were down, especially in in-dash navigation although his Christmas business doesn’t usually surge until mid-December with remote start season.

Source: MESA, CEoutlook

Ford First to Integrate Slacker Radio App

DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — * Slacker Radio joins the lineup of smartphone apps that Ford drivers can control with their voice through available SYNC® AppLink™

Slacker Radio offers users the widest range of personalized music and information content through its free and subscription radio services Ford drivers with SYNC® AppLink™ now have another entertainment option with the addition of Slacker Radio to the portfolio of available SYNC-compatible smartphone apps.

AppLink builds on the award-winning SYNC connectivity system by enabling drivers to access and control apps on their smartphones by simply using their voice and allowing their hands to stay on the steering wheel and their eyes on the road.

“Customers now have so many options for accessing music and information. Ford SYNC AppLink allows us to not only keep pace with what they are listening to, but how they are listening to it,” said Doug VanDagens, director of Ford Connected Services. “With its huge music library, Slacker Radio dramatically increases the content options for Ford drivers.”

“Slacker listeners can create their own custom stations by selecting their favorite artists and songs, or listen to any of more than 150 stations curated by expert DJs who love the music they play,” said Steve Cotter, senior vice president of Business Development at Slacker Radio. “When they’re not in the mood for music, Slacker listeners can tune in to a wide variety of personalized talk content including personalized comedy, ABC News and ESPN Radio stations.”

Slacker Radio offers a fully customizable and personal online radio experience that includes the most varied and compelling range of content offered by any interactive Internet radio service. The Slacker Radio experience includes over 150 expert-programmed music stations, ABC News, ESPN sports, comedy, custom artist-hosted showcase stations and leading music festival stations. Also, announced today in conjunction with ABC, Slacker lifestyle stations featuring lifestyle highlights from ABC’s Good Morning America and ABC’s key content partners will be available shortly. With exclusive interactive talk programming and a music catalog that is over ten times larger than the leading radio competitor, Slacker Radio gives listeners the ultimate personal radio experience.

Ford drivers will be able to use their voice or the audio system controls to select Slacker stations to play, skip songs, set favorites or even ban a song or artist they don’t want to hear again. When driving into areas with limited or even no data connectivity, drivers can still listen to their favorite music by storing content directly to their phones for uninterrupted listening. In order to use Slacker with AppLink, drivers just need to update the Slacker Radio app on their smartphones to the latest version. Slacker with AppLink is now available on Android and BlackBerry with iOS pending approval.

Download the SYNC-enabled version of Slacker today by visiting http://www.Slacker.com from a supported device or by searching the application store for Slacker Radio. * Blackberry: Available now Slacker version 4.1.22 or higher * Android: Available now Slacker version 3.2.86 or higher * iOS: Pending approval Slacker version 3.6 or higher SYNC AppLink is available on the 2012 Ford Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, Fiesta, Mustang, F-150, F-150 SVT Raptor, Super Duty, Expedition, E-Series and Shelby GT500. The 2012 Lincoln MKZ, MKZ Hybrid and Navigator feature SYNC AppLink as standard equipment.

About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 166,000 employees and about 70 plants worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com.

About Slacker, Inc. Slacker offers the world’s most complete range of radio services, featuring over 150 exclusive curated radio stations, a library of millions of songs as well as non-music interactive programming for comedy, ESPN Radio, ABC News and much more. Whether it’s the award-winning free Slacker Basic Radio, or the fully-loaded subscription services Slacker Radio Plus and Slacker Premium Radio, listeners enjoy a unique, custom listening experience. Slacker enables music lovers to play highly personalized music online at the Slacker web site, on connected home devices or on-the-go with Slacker Personal Radio applications. Slacker mobile applications are available for Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, Palm webOS, Nokia, Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry smartphones. For more information visit: http://www.Slacker.com/about.

Livio’s Grooveshark Car Kit for Android on Pre-Order

Livio is preparing to deliver an Android version of its Livio Radio Car Kit, and it bears the name of the music streaming service Grooveshark.

The Grooveshark Car Kit by Livio Radio, like the Livio Kit, streams Internet Radio stations through your car radio from your phone over a Bluetooth connection.  It plugs into the cigarette lighter.

The products look similar, but the Grooveshark Kit works with Android phones and the  Livio Kit works with iPhones.

The Grooveshark kit also comes with specific buttons to control a Grooveshark app.  And it allows hands free calling.

The kit is bundled with three months of free GrooveShark Anywhere.  It was first shown at CES back in January and  is available for pre-order only at http://www.livioradio.com at $99.99.

Source: Livio Radio

OEM Navigation Gets Poor Reviews: J.D. Power

A J.D. Power & Associates study found that factory navigation in new cars is still fraught with problems.

The survey showed drivers are reporting numerous issues with simple navigating functions such as inputting an address, basic routing and voice recognition.

“Routing—the primary function of a navigation system– is obviously an issue and will continue to be,” said Andy Bernhard, Director at J.D. Power & Associates.   Since consumers have been complaining for 10 years that ease of use must be improved on these devices, Bernhard wonders, “Is the industry listening?”

Nearly a third of the problems reported concern ease of use, said the survey.

And the fact that the navi devices are integrated with audio and climate control only added to user frustration, said J.D. Power.

The Garmin GPS system in the Dodge Charger was rated the highest in user satisfaction followed by the Hyundai-Mobis in the Genesis Coupe. Ranked third was the Garmin system in the Chrysler 300.

The J.D. Power study is based on over 18,000 responses during October.

Bernhard concludes the auto industry must better understand “the complexity of interfaces and the implementation of navigation” as part of the total driving experience.  He notes that while consumers want more technology, proper implementation is critical and “the industry continually appears to be miss the mark.”

Source: J.D. Power & Associates

Cobra, Escort in Legal Battle

Cobra and Escort are in a legal battle over technology in their new GPS-enabled radar detector systems and specifically, Cobra’s iRadar.

Escort filed a complaint November 11 claiming that Cobra’s iRadar system infringes on two Escort patents.  The suit, filed in the Southern District of Ohio also said that Cobra breached a previous agreement between the two companies.

Then last week, Cobra  filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.   It said it “categorically denies Escort’s allegations,” and that the Escort suit is “groundless.” Cobra’s Sally Washlow said, “The law is clear about the specificity required if you are going to make a claim of patent infringement. Escort’s complaint doesn’t meet the necessary standard and we look forward to the dismissal of Escort’s suit.”

Escort said Cobra violated patents regarding ” the identification and marking of false alerts,” and “the sharing of radar alert information between detectors.”

Escort recently introduced Escort Live, an “anti ticket social network” for radar detectors.

Source: Cobra via Marketwire and GPS Business News

In-Car Add-On Gives you Email, Kitchen Sink

Has Got2bWireless nailed an aftermarket solution for email, texting, phoning and keeping up with Facebook and Twitter at 60mph?

It will ship in January a mini LCD screen that lets you perform almost all the multi-tasking in the car you can handle.

The device (the name will be finalized shortly) requires professional installation.  Most of the electronics are built-in, but there’s a separate mic and you get an RF remote controller to grab while driving to dictate a text or place a call.

The LCD (about 2.5 by 3 inches by ½ inch thick) is  expected to sell for $179.99.

A key attribute, is that it promises crystal clear, audible audio for Bluetooth hands free calling and audio streaming.  A second critical feature is highly accurate voice recognition.

It reads back your email and lets you respond by voice.  Then it converts the message to text, punctuates it and sends it.  The same is true for Facebook and Twitter updates. You may send text messages by voice to text, but it doesn’t read your texts aloud to you.

Got2bWireless has been getting some attention for its other 3 Bluetooth add-on devices with similar features.  Sears will carry the brand in 900 stores and Brookstone is picking it up.  It’s already in plenty of specialists and CE stores.

The company decided to deliver an LCD version of the product because people like to see the caller ID for Bluetooth on a true screen, said managing director Tim Suri.“Our accuracy is 99.9 percent in voice recognition.  It’s very robust; better than anyone else’s,” said Suri.   “And our service for texting and email is 99 percent accurate in punctuation and in converting speech to text.” As for sound quality, he said, “People need to hear you and you need to hear them and a lot of products don’t have the robust engine.  We have a powerful amp that pushes out the voice.  Our noise cancellation is superior to anyone else’s.”

The best noise suppression in similar products is 25 decibels, he claims while Got2bWireless provides 60 decibels and promises you can hear clearly in a convertible car  with the top down, going 70 mph (or in a demo car at CES with music blasting in the background).

The company offers vehicle specific harnesses.

Got2bWireless is located just outside of Detroit and holds multiple patents in consumer electronics.

Source: CEoutlook

Best Buy a Winner on Black Friday

As you’ve probably heard by now, the Thanksgiving weekend was an unexpected success for retailers as sales rose  16.4 percent over last year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Electronics was the second most popular gift, second only to clothes,  with nearly half of all shoppers buying technology, according to a Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study.

As for online shopping, total online sales were up 26 percent on Black Friday from a year ago, said comScore. About 50 million Americans visited online sites on Black Friday, up 35 percent over last year.

Best Buy was one of the top destinations as it offered heavy discounts on TVs and Blu-ray players, said Reuters and NBC.

Best Buy was more aggressive in pricing this year than last with one analyst stating its discounts were steeper than Amazon’s in some cases.

“Last year, they weren’t as responsive with their pricing as they needed to be. We are seeing a different set of behaviors from them this time around,” said Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors, reported Reuters.

In online shopping over Black Friday, Amazon had 50 percent more visitors that any other retailer.  Walmart came in second for online traffic, followed by Best buy, Target and Apple.  All saw traffic increase by double digits over last year, said comScore.

In total a record 226 million shoppers visited stores or online sites from Thursday through Sunday, up from 212 million last year, according to an NRF survey.

U.S. retailers rung in a record $52.4 billion in sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, surprising analysts.

Almost 123 million people in the U.S. are expected to shop today, on Cyber Monday, up from nearly 107 million a year ago, said the NRF, referencing a BIGresearch study.

You can see more early details on weekend sales from the National Retail Federation here.

Source: Reuters,  CEA

 

Metra ASWC Receives Global Media & SEMA Awards

NOVEMBER 2011: HOLLY HILL, FL – Metra Electronics said it received a Global Media Award for its ASWC steering wheel interface during the recent SEMA show.

The Global Media Award winners are selected by a panel of leading automotive journalists from around the world.

Additionally, the ASWC won a second SEMA award as noted here.

The ASWC Interface utilizes a unique auto-detect and configure feature for accessory steering wheel controls and is manufactured under and protected by US Patent Number 8014920, awarded on September 6, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office jointly to Metra Electronics and Circuit Works, Inc.

USB Stick Converts Car Stereo to Android

An amazing little USB stick can convert a TV or car stereo (or computer) to an Android device.

It’s called the Cotton Candy USB by FXI Technologies and it includes a built in computer and an HDMI connector.  It seems that when you plug it into a car stereo or TV, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) appears on the device.  If you add an input device like a wireless keyboard, you’ve got a computer.

The USB stick itself includes a  1.2GHz ARM Cortex A9-based processor and an ARM’s quad-core Mali GPU and 1GB of RAM.

With a workaround, you can even get Android Market on your TV or car radio, says The Wall Street Journal.

The device is expected to be available in the first half next year at under $200.

We asked FXI for more info on car stereo capabilities but haven’t heard back.

Source: Wired

Pioneer Expects Minor Car Audio Shortages

Pioneer Electronics said it expects minor shortages in 2012 car audio models due the flooding in Thailand this past summer.

As you may remember, Thailand underwent the worst floods in 50 years, and in many areas, the flood waters have yet to recede.

Pioneer has two factories located in the impacted regions and they are expected to remain closed for a short period of time, it said.

Pioneer’s Larry Rougas told us in an email, “As early as last month, we have taken measures to increase production in several of our other factories located in China, Malaysia and Japan.  Although we are fortunate to have the manufacturing capacity to help recover from the temporary loss of our Thailand production, we do expect minor product shortages on some of our 2012 models.”

Rougas who is senior VP for Marketing, Product Planning and Sales Planning for Car Electronics added, “Regardless, we are doing everything in our power to minimize the flood impact and ensure we have the ability to meet market demands for Pioneer products.”

Pioneer’s factories in Thailand include the Pioneer Manufacturing (Thailand) Company Limited and Tohoku Pioneer (Thailand) Company Limited.  Both are located in  Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya Province, Thailand.

For more on floods in Thailand see Reuters story here.

Source: CEoutlook

Happy Thanksgiving From CEoutlook

We at CEoutlook wish all of you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

CEoutlook will be closed  Thursday and Friday this week and will resume our newsletter on Monday.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

Kenwood Launches Android Ready Car Radios

Kenwood will ship this month two car radios that work with Android phones.  It joins Sony as one of the few suppliers to give Android phone users the ability control their music from the car radio.

Android users can plug in their phones into the Kenwood car radio which will then recognize it as a mass storage device.  If the user also downloads a Kenwood app,  he can then use the car radio’s seek, play and pause keys to control music on the phone.

The app will be available in January from Android Market, and will most likely be called Kenwood Music Control.

The Android-ready car CD/radios are the Kenwood  KDC-252U CD receiver and KDC-202U.

The KDC-252U has a $120 suggested retail price. In addition to Android music playback and control you also get built-in Pandora control over an iPhone  including thumbs up/down.   The CD/radio has a front USB for connecting an iPod and mass storage devices.  The radio will also charge an iPhone.  It comes with a front AUX input and one set of pre-outs to allow system building, including the addition of a subwoofer through an optional signal output and a built-in low frequency crossover.  You also get remote control.

The step down model KDC-202U has a suggested retail price of $110.  You get the same Android control but you lose iPhone and built-in Pandora control.   You also get front USB for mass storage devices, front aux in, one set of pre-outs, and remote control.

With most car radios, Android users can plug the phone  to hear their music (through the aux in jack) but there’s no control over the music so you must keep  picking up your phone to change songs while driving.

A third Kenwood basic CD/radio will also ship this month (without Android control) at a $100 suggested retail price.   The KDC-152 has a front aux input, and is MP3 capability with one set of pre-outs and remote control.

Source: Kenwood

Car Stereo Top Picks from CNET for Holiday Gifts

Among the 20 CNET “Editors’ Top Picks” for electronic gifts the holiday….right up there with the newest Kindle, the iPad 2 and a Sony Cyber-shot….was the Pioneer AVIC-Z130BT GPS/DVD receiver.

Other products cited as top gift items in the automotive categories are the Alpine CDE-124SXM CE/SiriusXM receiver, Livio Radio Bluetooth Internet Radio Kit, Cobra Tag Bluetooth keyring for Android, Kanex AirBlue, and Cobra iRadar radar detector.  Winners also include Scosche Motor Mouth II Stereo Bluetooth car kit and the TomTom Via 1535TM.  OnStar said its FMV was also selected.

Source: OnStar, CNET

Massive Launches NX3

Massive Audio is introducing a new combination Class AB and Class D,  small footprint car audio amplifier in its Nano Block micro topology amps.

The Nx3 tri channel model has dual power supplies with a total of 2080 watt output–120 watts RMS (240w Max) @ 4 Ohm x 2 + 800 watts RMS (1600 Max) @ 1 Ohm x 1 (CEA 2006 compliant).

The Nx3 also has two features new to the Nano Block series: an adjustable one band parametric EQ with a center frequency range of 30-80 Hz, and a variable bass “Q” control that will allow you to adjust the frequency bell curve to pick the precise octave range of the bass boost.

The amp measures 2.1”H x 5.5”W x 13.2”L and will be available December 1 at $599.95, and on view at CES in January.

Source: Massive Audio

Suburb Impounds 645 Cars in ’10 on Stereo Laws

Berwyn, IL, a suburb of Chicago with about 50,000 residents, impounded 645 cars under a car stereo ordinance last year and 336 as of October this year.

Fees for getting one’s car back after the police tow it can be as high as $800, including a $500 impound fee, which some resident find onerous, according to MySuburbanLife.com

The City police department has collected more than $624,000 in fines since 2009 through the ordinance.

See the full story here.

Source: MySuburbanLife.com 

TomTom Users Capture the Road Network 3,000 Times

Amsterdam, 22 November 2011 – TomTom’s community of drivers has shared over 5,000,000,000,000 (5 trillion) anonymous travel data points with us since 2006.

The travel data points cover over 140 billion kilometres, which equals driving each and every road in our markets 3,000 times.

This information delivers deep insights into actual driving behaviour and is the key ingredient for smarter routing (IQ Routes) and traffic prediction.

TomTom navigation devices with IQ Routes give customers the best direction depending on the time of the day and day of the week.

In addition, governments and local authorities can optimise road usage and make well-founded road infrastructure decisions based on these insights.

Six billion new travel data points are shared every day enabling us to continuously improve our maps, routing and services.

TomTom products that are based on this database are:

• IQ Routes
• Speed Profiles
• MultiNet map database
• HD Traffic
• Custom Travel Times
• Custom Origin Destination
• Isochronal maps

About TomTom

Founded in 1991, TomTom (AEX:TOM2) is the world’s leading supplier of in-car location and navigation products and services focused on providing all drivers with the world’s best navigation experience. Headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom has over 3,500 employees and sells its products in over 40 countries.

Our products include portable navigation devices, in-dash infotainment systems, fleet management solutions, maps and real-time services, including the award winning HD Traffic.

For the world’s most up-to-date route planner, including live traffic information please visit www.tomtom.com/livetraffic

Sonic Electronix Opens Installation Shop

Sonic Electronix opened up an installation shop in its current online retail headquarters in Valencia, CA. this month.

The discounter had planned to open a store that was separate from its online headquarters, but it ran into real estate problems and decided to expand its current location by 25,000 square feet instead.

It now has 4 bays and 2 installers. The installation shop covers about 5,000 square feet.  Sonic charges $85 an hour for labor fees.  If you bring in products purchased elsewhere, including Walmart or Best Buy, you pay an extra 20 to 25 percent.  There’s also a fee for testing merchandise if you bring in a product that is not working properly.

“The install bays just opened last week,” said the 28 year old CEO, Nate Victor, noting the store has already installed systems in a Lamborghini and a 2012 Dodge Charger.

Victor didn’t want to talk about sales numbers although he said his online business has continued to grow.   The company has been adding more employees and Victor has embedded a layer of upper management in the operation that helps with  business planning and strategy.  Sonic’s director of operations formerly worked at Fry’s and the VP of eCommerce comes from Teleflora, the flower delivery company.

Sonic also has a 40,000 square foot warehouse in Kentucky.

We asked Victor where he sees the business of car audio and electronics heading.  He said, “I think there’s so much potential with integration with smartphones.  We’ve seen a little with O’Car and Jackson Electronics’ iRoc…..I think you need to have the ability to have the smartphone power the whole system.  You have a platform like Android that can power all these stereos.  Head units are slower than any other device you use. People are used to quick, snappy interfaces.  All that will finally come out.”

Sonic’s web site says its sales grew by 98% in 2005, by over 95% in 2006 and kept growing at a rapid pace since “to the point that we have shipped over 500,000 orders since our inception.”

Source: CEoutlook

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